5 Qualities of a Leader That Inspires

5 Qualities of a Leader That Inspires

Ever wonder why some people are just inspirational leaders. I love what John Maxwell lays out as the 5 Qualities of a Leader that Inspires. Leaders are people who LEAD, Inspirational Leaders inspire others and build more Leaders.

I hope after reading this you will choose to strive to be an inspirational leader not just a manager of people. No manager will ever be great. Managers don't create more managers they just delegate and sit back an take the credit.

At the end of the day Leaders are built by other great Leaders and the Qualities of a Leader are what we want to develop.

ATTITUDE OF SERVICE
To be an inspirational leader, you must adopt an attitude of service toward those you lead. This requires laying aside selfish interests to add value to another person. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” When you serve, you awaken something magnetic inside of you. People are drawn to follow you because they know you'll find ways to make them better.

AFFIRMATION
To inspire means to have a positive view of others. If we're not careful, we become fault-finders, magnifying the flaws in everyone around us. Instead, leaders should emulate gold prospectors – always on the lookout for potential gold mines. When they find traces of ore, prospectors assume there's a rich vein to unearth, and they start digging. In the same fashion, leaders ought to search for the best traits within a person and commit to uncovering them. One of the best applications of this idea is expressed in what I call the 101 percent principle: Find the one thing that you believe is a person's greatest asset, and then give 100 percent encouragement in that area. Focusing on a person's strengths inspires them by promoting confidence, growth, and success.

ATTENTIVENESS
Great inspirers know the desires of those they lead. As much as people respect the knowledge and ability of their leaders, these are secondary concerns for them. They don't care how much their leaders know until they know how much their leaders care. When leaders attend to the deeply felt needs of their team, the determination and commitment of each team member skyrockets.

AVAILABILITY
Leaders inspire by intentionally investing time in the people they lead. They make themselves available. People cannot be nurtured from a distance or by infrequent spurts of attention. They need a leader to spend time with them – planned time, not just a conversation in passing. In our fast-paced and demanding world, time is a leader's most precious commodity. While it feels costly to give up, nothing communicates that you value a person more than the gift of your time. In addition, investing time to develop others has a way of reaping dividends. As Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

AUTHENTICITY
To inspire, leaders have to be genuine. More than anything else, followers want to believe in and trust their leaders. However, when leaders break promises or fail to honor commitments, they reveal themselves as being inauthentic, and they lose credibility. Trust rests upon a foundation of authenticity. To gain trust, a leader must consistently align words and deeds, while showing a degree of transparency.Summary
Inspirational leadership can be confused with momentary charisma. I prefer to think about inspiring as more of a process than an event. More than a brilliant speech, it's cultivating habits of brilliance that manifest themselves daily. By modeling the five qualities of a leader that inspires, I trust that you'll win the respect of those you lead and earn the right to influence them.If you have got value from this post please share and comment below.

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The nature of communication in the group also plays a significant part in determining what kind of person will be an effective leader. An individual will usually be regarded as a group leader when he has a central position in the communication network (Goldberg, 1955). In less highly structured groups, persons who initiate the most communication are likely to emerge as leaders